BOXING THE SEQUOIA

Francesca and I continue our summer travels.          Someone asked, "If Venezuela was so problematic, why did you go there?"  As I think I mentioned, we went there to re-connect with my wife's many relatives who still live there. 
All were warm and generous. 
The country, with its beaches, mountains, and tropical greenery, is beautiful.  I'll be writing more about that adventure when we return to Miami in August.




Now we're in Europe visiting our Grove neighbor, Brigitte Kavanaugh.  We brought Ian and Dylan with us. 


Brigitte has a 300-year old house in NW France (Josselin, Brittany).   It's amazing, sheltering people like us for over three centuries.  
The weather?  Perfect.  We wish we could send some of the 64 degree air back to South Florida.  
Everyday here is remarkable.  Yesterday we stumbled upon a Catholic school in nearby Ploermel.  A monk showed us their prized 150-year-old clock. The school's founder, Jean-Marie de la Mennais, built it himself.  It fills a room, has revolving planets, and many, many dials.  One goes around every minute and another, every 1000 years.   After we took all that in he asked us if we'd like to step outside "to box the sequoia".  

    Who could refuse?  A garden tour ended at the base of a huge pine tree.  As Frere Gumanchey suggested, we took turns punching the tree's soft bark.  From its looks,  the towering giant has had put up with this silliness for many years.

   This part of France is so different from Miami.  No one there, for instance, ever invited me to pummel a tree.




Haft-timbered buildings in Rennes




















Dylan, lost in plants again.